Valkyrie Profile:
Lenneth Novelization AU:
Disclaimer: I do not own Valkyrie Profile or any other tri-Ace properties. Please support the official release.
Chapter Twenty-One:
The Cave of Thackus III
"Come on, now. It's been hours since you sealed yourselves into those tunnels. I know you will have spoken with that damn Sigil-Keeper by now. Just show yourself so we can have this final dance, Lenneth Valkyrie. I grow bored of this game you play."
While the dragon's eye spies hovered around the floor of the ravine, his corpse puppets were stationed around the pool in front of the cave the dragon had made his lair in. There was little organization to their rows and ranks. Their undead master could tell them where to go, but beyond that, there were simply too many of them for him to expend the energy to arrange them more efficiently. There were, however, enough of them to form a mob which would overwhelm Odin's witch as soon as she and her band of chosen slain arrived.
"Now then, I just need to spot from where you will approach," Hræzlyre thought.
He was so certain he had everything planned out. They did not know their way around the tunnel systems, so he assumed they would try to come back the way they came. It never occurred to him they might try something else. It was for this reason Belenus was able to stick his head out of one of the higher up holes in the ravine walls to get a look around without being spotted, as he was well above where the dragon had his abominations searching.
Belenus backed away from the hole and went back down the short passage he'd come down a moment ago, stopping at the threshold of a larger central tunnel connected to several other side passages they were currently searching for the very exit he'd just found.
He leaned around the corner and whispered as loudly as he could while keeping his voice shushed. "Lady Valkyrie. I found it. 'Tis definitely one of the higher holes in the ravine's wall. We're a good distance from the bottom."
A moment later, Lenneth stepped back into the main tunnel from one of the other passages.
"You are certain?" she asked.
"Beyond any doubt," Belenus whispered back loudly.
"Good work, Belenus," Lenneth said appreciatively.
She went to him, and he showed her the large hole which exited roughly three-fifths of the way up the ravine wall. Belenus pressed his back to the wall on the far side of the hole to let her get a look out. Lenneth crept over to it, also keeping her back to the wall. Then she leaned to the side and peered out. Sure enough, she could see the very ravine they had been in before, but looking down at it from a good thirty or so feet above the floor. She could also see the Undead Dragon's army of undead puppets and the Sigils of Load-Bearing he had clawed into the walls, further confirming where they were.
She sighed in relief. Their combing of the tunnels using the dragon's dark aura as a landmark had not been in vain. Now, they just had to get the drop of their enemy again. The Valkyrie eased away and headed back into the main tunnel.
Lenneth cupped her hands around her mouth to call as softly as she could, "My einherjar, this way. Belenus has found it."
A moment later, there were heavy footsteps and Arngrim appeared from around the corner of another passage.
"What was that? Couldn't quite hear you over here," he called back.
"This way. Belenus has found it," Lenneth repeated.
Arngrim nodded and reentered the tunnel for a moment, calling for the others. Shortly after, he reappeared with Lawfer, Llewelyn, Jelanda, and Nanami in tow.
"About damn time," Arngrim muttered on arrival. "Getting' tired of these crammed tunnels."
"Well, you are about to have as much battle as you can swing that massive blade at," Lenneth drolly replied. "Come. Let us survey this scene."
First Arngrim, then Lawfer and Llewelyn filed in. Nanami and Jelanda were last, half-focused on practicing a chant together.
"…nd henceforth unwelcome in this place," they finished together.
"Do you think you have it memorized well enough now?" Nanami asked.
"Eh…" Jelanda looked away doubtfully.
"Alright, let's do it again," Nanami suggested.
Jelanda nodded.
"This place has become…" both girls chanted.
While they practiced, the others crowded around the hole to get a look out into the ravine any way they could. Two things were certain, they'd gone the right way, and they were over the far end of the ravine where the dragon dwelled. The walls gradually narrowed the farther back you went in this spot. They could see the pool in front of the cave entrance at the base of where the canyon walls rejoined. They could not see the dragon zombie, but occasionally, some large bubbles came up to the surface of the pool.
"No oth for betting where he is," Lenneth thought.
They also saw its corpse puppets and eye spies had gathered below them, serving as a blockade between them and their quarry. There must have been around a hundred in this spot, and they could see others still patrolling other parts of the gorge.
"The element of surprise is the only advantage at our disposal right now," Lenneth glumly noted.
She stepped away from the hole and tried to think while giving her einherjar more room to observe the way they must go, themselves. Arngrim surveyed the scene, and he knew such a battle would likely be the end of him in life, but now…
He looked at his hand, covered in iron gauntlets. It felt real, but it was all made up of supernatural mumbo jumbo which allowed his soul to take on physical form. It also allowed them to tap into powers hidden in the depths of their souls.
Nanami observed Jelanda repeating the chant by herself now to make sure she had it right. After listening to her run through it a couple of times without needing help, Nanami left the younger girl's side to look out the hole as well. After a moment, she backed away and turned to Lenneth.
"Lady Valkyrie, perhaps if I perform an exorcism, it will disrupt the Undead Dragon's hold over his puppet legion and give us an opening?" the shrine maiden suggested.
Lenneth looked back at her with a thoughtful look.
"That is not a bad thought," the Valkyrie admitted. "But we will need to strike them hard and quickly with everything we have to cut our way to the dragon quickly."
"I can hit them with Mystic Cross," Jelanda suggested from the back.
Arngrim also spoke up. "It's been a while since I've been up against somethin' that can push me to needin' to use my Final Blast finisher."
"I heartily agree with Lady Valkyrie as well. Our best moves will get us the best foothold in this fight," Lawfer added.
Lenneth looked around and saw only eagerness in the faces in her einherjar.
"There is no choice, is there?" the Valkyrie asked. "Very well, but with one alternation. Jelanda, give your spell crystals to Llewelyn. He will throw them while you cast. We will begin with a Holy Crystal before we venture down, ourselves. Everyone, get into position."
With that, Arngrim moved towards the back of the chamber and stretched to loosen up as he prepared to run up to the hole and jump out to forcibly activate his Soul Crush with the adrenaline rush he'd get. Jelanda meanwhile, detached the pouches containing the spell crystals from her belt and gave them to Llewelyn, who strapped them to his own. All the while, Artolia's former princess repeated the chant Nanami had taught her at Lenneth's request for her to memorize it. The shrine girl in question took a moment to look at Henry's spellbook again. She flipped to the page concerning the seal renewal spell, having some of her own memorizing to do.
Lenneth glanced between both the mages on her team. She then told the warriors to watch the hole for a moment. As Belenus and Lawfer sidled up its sides, the goddess watched Jelanda and Nanami memorizing the needed spells.
"We can afford another moment to let them prepare," Lenneth decided.
A while later, and they still had not appeared. Hræzlyre fidgeted impatiently at the bottom of the pool, switching between the perspectives of his various puppets. While he obsessively looked into tunnel mouths, a small white crystal flew from the hole where his quarry had gathered, unseen until it broke against the ground.
"Huh?" the Undead Dragon grunted as he heard the first hint of a whistling in the air through the ears of his puppets.
Then he heard what sounded like glass breaking and his vision was instantaneously filled with blinding light. The surface of the pool bubbled as though boiling as the Undead Dragon reeled from the stark brightness of the Holy Spell which scorched his frontline corpse puppets to crisps. The instant the Holy Crystal went off, Arngrim leapt from the hole, roaring to further psych himself up as he fell. It had the desired effect, as his body burst into light before he hit the ground. He landed, crouching on his feet.
"I GROW TIRED OF YOU DEVILS! FINISHING STRIKE!" with those thunderous words, he rampaged forth, tearing through the dragon's legions.
Arngrim left only cinders and bits and pieces of his opponents in his explosive wake as he zipped back and forth tearing through everything in his path before he leapt straight up into the air and then came down with Dáinsleif raised over his head and pointed down.
"FINAL BLAST!" rang out as one final fiery blast sent several of the dragon's minions flying in pieces.
Then Lenneth leapt from the hole, bringing the other with hers. Nanami and Jelanda focused on casting while Llewelyn, Lawfer, and Belenus guarded them. The instant they touched down on the floor, Lenneth charged into the fray of unholy reanimates, chopping and slicing at everything she could while their master was momentarily disoriented. In an instant, she caught up to Arngrim. He was still fighting off the dragon's legions with Dáinsleif flying without pause in all directions, cutting down or knocking back anything that got too near.
One almost fresh corpse puppet with a cleaver crept out from behind a rock and almost stabbed Arngrim in the back while he was busy stomping in the heads of some of its kin, which had already been cut in half moments before. Lenneth zoomed in and impaled the corpse puppet from the side as she channeled a blast through the blade which caused the undead thing to explode.
Arngrim glanced over his shoulder and smirked. "What took ya?"
Lenneth just rolled her eyes and incased her next opponent in an ice crystal.
Belenus and Lawfer leapt in front of the meditating magi as several puppet corpses growled and started towards them on instinct. Llewelyn tossed a Thunder Crystal at the nearest eye spy of a whole flock which were bearing down them with their retinal tails raised with their stingers out. Instinctively, the flying thing lashed out at the flying crystal, breaking it. It was rewarded with a deadly electrical current which instantly burned every eye spy for several yards to black crisps.
With the aerial danger averted, Llewelyn pulled the bowstring back, preparing two energy bolts, which he fired through the faces of two corpse puppets, destroying their eyes, thusly felling them both. Meanwhile, Lawfer hurled himself toward the first corpse puppet, slamming it with the butt of his pole weapon, knocking it back into its comrades and making them fall into a pile. With the leeway he'd just given himself, Lawfer swung up at the angle from below at the next one to charge him, cleaving off its right arm and head in one go.
Belenus ran up to one of the more skeletal specters, and instead of taking out his sword, he dipped into a squat, grabbing the thing by the leg and then threw himself into a spin as he shot back up. Using the corpse puppet as a makeshift flail, the Lassen noble smacked several of its kin and a couple of eye spies away before letting go, hurling the damned thing into the crowd. Belenus did not wait to enjoy the bowling pin-like effect it had. He unsheathed his sword and threw all his weight cutting one of them in two across the torso.
From the right, another corpse puppet ran in and skillfully swung at Belenus with a mace. Its overhead arc had been meant to come in from a blind spot, but Belenus had spotted it in time and parried from below, pushing the bludgeon up and away. The corpse puppet quickly looped the weapon around and swung it back up from below. Belenus couldn't block, he was forced to leap backwards off the tips of his feet, taking a hit to his shoulder when he did.
The Lassen man grimaced, squeezing one eye shut from the pain in his arm and shoulder, but he had no time to tend to it as another blow from the mace was coming down at him. Belenus blocked it still holding his sword with both hands whilst trying to ignore the pain, but he could not push the weapon away. He was forced to step back again. The corpse puppet jumped around to his side, glaring at him coolly.
The voice of dragon spoke angrily through its lips, "I have had just about enough of you and your Valkyrie!"
When it swung again, it was stopped by a pair of energy arrows being fired into its forearm, which caused it to drop the bludgeon. Belenus then slashed his sword in a cross arc aiming high, slicing both of the puppeteered cadaver's eyes out. It fell to the ground lifeless.
Belenus glanced back to Llewelyn, smiling in relief while rubbing his shoulder. "Thank you!"
"Look out!" Llewelyn pointed ahead.
The nobleman turned in time to see another corpse puppet had picked up the mace before running at him and swinging hard. Belenus again tried to parry, but was knocked back. The dragon's laugh burst from the cadaver's lips.
"Too bad for you I have redundancies," Hræzlyre taunted.
Llewelyn had just about been ready to fire on that one, too, when he was divebombed by an eye spy. The archer sidestepped the attack, swinging his bow like a club hard enough to burst its eye. The flying spy fell to the ground in a pile of mush of its own juices. Then Llewelyn dodged another dive attack, and rolled over the ground, pulling the bow taut again. As he rolled onto his back and shot the flying eye through its pupil and was then forced to keep firing while on his back as they tried to swarm him and the casting magi.
As more crowded around Belenus and rushed him all at once. It felt like the noble's entire body throbbed, first with the pain his shoulder, then terror, and finally with overwhelming power. Just as the mace-wielder was about to knock his head off, Belenus's body ignited with his inner power, manifesting as light blue energy. The Undead Dragon instinctively pulled all its puppets back as the funnel of energy started from the floor and surrounded Belenus's body.
No longer having any pain in his shoulder, Belenus grabbed his blade in both hands confidently, and shouted, "Feel my wrath! Finishing Strike…!"
Several rings of power layered on top of each other surrounded the dragon's minions, and then tightened, snaring them all up as though they were lassoed.
"What in the Nine…?" the dragon started to shout through their lips.
"EXTREME VOID!" followed by a gigantic phantasmal sword erupting from beneath them, cutting the whole dozen into halves or pieces.
Belenus watched the body parts of that smug dragon's vessels scatter everywhere as his energy levels returned to normal. The pain in his shoulder returned as well, but not as crippling. He pressed his hand to it, rotating the non-existent joints and feeling it loosen back up.
"Now then…" Belenus turned to his opponent's next meat suit. "Shall we dance?"
While they fought, Lawfer was also dealing with Hræzlyre's puppets beginning to move with more intelligence and coordination. He knew at once the dragon had reasserted control of them after that momentary disorientation. They ran in strategically to overwhelm him, but the young knight had long since mastered crowd control. He swung his halberd in perpetual motion, beheading one corpse puppet while smacking an eye spy away with the blunt end before dipping under a stroke meant to take his head clean off. He swept his weapon out in a full circle, cutting off his enemies at the legs while making others back off. All the while, he felt energy inside him building and building.
Lawfer was still crouched when he raised his halberd over his head to block an ax strike from behind and above him. The impact jolted him, and his own inner power was unleashed. As his body glowed, he pushed up so suddenly against the ax-wielder, it was knocking into the crowd.
"I stake everything on this single blow!" Lawfer shouted. He raised his halberd straight up. "Finishing Strike… JUSTICE STREAM!"
Then he slammed the butt of his weapon against the ground, and a hurricane of wraithlike blades swept up his opponents throwing them around and cutting them up simultaneously.
From the rear, Llewelyn's power awakened as well, as he gleamed with a yellow hue.
"In the name of all the gods!" his voice pierced the air as he prepared another shot. "Finishing Strike… LAYER STORM!"
Then in a single release, he fired multiple golden arrows which each homed in on different enemies and felled them all.
With this done, Nanami opened her eyes. Her comrades had given her and Jelanda just enough time they could make their move now. The shrine girl stood up from preparing the ritual on her knees. She held up a sutra which glowed with holy power.
"Unclean spirits, consumed by hate and darkness, begone from this realm!" the shrine maiden finished the incantation and thrust her hand forward with the fingers extended. "May your tethers to your old life be cut and peacefully you be laid down! Ha!"
With one final hand motion, Nanami unleashed a wave of white, vaporous energy, which washed over the horde of Hræzlyre's marionettes. In the midst of the battle, Belenus raised his sword to defend against an attack, but his foe went still, frozen in place before falling to the ground. The eye spy Lawfer had impaled with the spearhead of his halberd flopped limply after it'd just been thrashing and several more of the horde collapsed through the area, leaving only the abominable minions directly around the toxic pool standing.
A gurgling roar rumbled up from the bottom of the pool before the dragon burst to the surface, writhing, and screaming in pain. Hræzlyre had felt his hold over its puppets forcibly cut and the cleansing energies through their connection with him. It felt like ten thousand spears in his head.
Lenneth and Arngrim, who were the nearest to the pool, were both forced to retreat to avoid being splashed by the contaminated waters, quickly ducking behind a rock. Lenneth glanced around the side before going flat against it.
"Finally, the fiend shows himself," Lenneth uttered.
The sight of rotting flesh and bone moved through sheer stubborn hatred had always been most foul for a Valkyrie. This almost skeletal winged reptilian creature with grayed skin hanging from its bones was the most profane thing down in that canyon as far as Lenneth was concerned. More blasphemous than even its puppets, all of which had been victims as opposed to the dragon's willfully evil nature.
Hræzlyre grabbed onto the bank of the pool with its front claws and continued to moan and shriek as his head moved from side to side painfully. With the only thought he could still form at the moment, he issued another order to those of his puppets which still stood:
"Kill."
Fueled by their master's hate, the remaining corpse puppets and eye spies swept forward in a wave towards the enemies, leaving him unguarded. Their motions were clumsy and without the intelligence of the dragon guiding them, but he was still in too much pain from Nanami's exorcism to control them directly.
"Humph!" Lenneth saw her chance and darted around the thinned ranks of the dragon's legions to attack him head on.
However, even in the depths of spiritual whiplash, Hræzlyre saw her coming and opened his enormous mouth, and spewed a green, noxious cloud of poison at her. Lenneth sharply turned right, running with blinding speed away from the breath weapon. Yet the dragon was able to follow her movements and the stream of green mist spewing from his mouth was gaining on her. Lenneth felt the first barbs of pain from the noxious gas and shot upwards, vanishing from the ravine entirely for a moment.
Hræzlyre could feel her presence above him, and then he saw her coming back down at full speed with a great spear so large it dwarfed her in hand.
"It shall be engraved on your soul!" her voice echoed through the ravine as she descended. "Divine Assault…"
Hræzlyre prepared his defense and willed the dark magics to well up within him as he watched her coming down at him with the spear raised high to skewer him. And then…
Lenneth sharply turned towards the final wave of enemies charging her einherjar.
"NIBELUNG VALESTI!"
"Oh, shit! Screw this!"
As soon as Hræzlyre cut loose with his poison breath, Arngrim backpedaled from the green fumes, cursing as they spread out through the air. The dragon's minions were not affected at all by his breath weapon, and closed in on Arngrim as he retreated.
One of the corpse puppets jumped into his path, and Arngrim responded by charging through it while leading with his shoulder. Another dropped down from above, landing beside him with arms outstretched to grab his arm. Arngrim swung Dáinsleif in a low arc, cutting it off at the legs. He barely missed a step. More of the beasts ran into his path and Arngrim realized he was surrounded.
He belted out a ferocious battlecry as he charged forward with Dáinsleif trained on the corpse puppets ahead of him. He ran towards the middle of the mob to take them all at once, but then at the last second, he sharply banked right, putting a bunch to one side. Then he jumped sharply left straight into one, knocking its head off with his elbow. Then his swung hard, cutting the next into two pieces diagonally before skewering the next one and continuing to charge through until he had them several more run through up to the hilt. He bore them all to the ground before pulling Dáinsleif out and slashing down and across, destroying all their heads.
More rushed him from all sides, but Arngrim smiled, as he saw Jelanda's spell coming.
"MYSTIC CROSS!"
Several cross-shaded bolts flew through the air, felling several of the charging corpse puppets around Arngrim, giving him the room to move. One swung at him with a rusty sword, which Arngrim backstepped from. Then he reached around the corpse's head, grabbing it from the other side, and twisted it clean off before kicking its still standing body away, tripping two others. Then he threw the head into the face of another corpse puppet, knocking it flat on its back.
As Lawfer, Jelanda, and the others ran to Arngrim's side, Llewelyn's arrows flew through the air, downing eye spies and blinding corpse puppets and rendering them useless by shooting them through the face to destroy the eyes.
"Lightning Bolt!" Nanami aimed her fingers at an incoming mob of their enemies.
The branching, reaching current of power tore through the corpse puppets and eye spies, sending their pieces flying everywhere. She and the others in the group covered their heads as they finally convened with Arngrim to avoid getting knocked silly by a flying body part. Arngrim nodded with acknowledging grunt as they rejoined him.
"Welcome to the party," he said.
Then he turned to the sizable leftovers made of about fifty of the dragon's legion coming towards. Arngrim, Lawfer, and Belenus formed the front row as they prepared to make a stand. Llewelyn stepped off to the side, took aim while the magi prepared their next spells.
"NIBELUNG VALESTI!" one of Lenneth's great spears flew through the mob from behind, skewering and obliterating several of them.
It was quickly followed by the second and third attacks of the finisher, downing several more enemies and sending the rest into complete disarray. Lenneth flew through the dragon's discombobulated army, landing with a loud "clank" as her boots hit the stone floor. Without turning away from her einherjar, Lenneth pointed her sword ahead through the opening she'd made.
"Onward!" she ordered.
Then, almost as if they were of one mind, they all charged the dragon.
"Oh, no, you don't," Hræzlyre shouted.
The stragglers left in Lenneth's wake rushed to close the gap while anything that survived her finisher even partially intact tried to rise again. Lenneth wasted no one in unleashing several freezing shots leaving many corpse puppets trapped in crystal. Llewelyn's arrows flew again, always aiming for the eyes of the rotting meat puppets to leave them unusable to the dragon, and the warriors just barreled through them, hacking and bashing through anything that got in their way.
Lenneth ducked under a club swing before hacking off the corpse puppet's arm off and continuing on past. Arngrim barely slowed as he cut almost everything which stepped up to him in half, and Lawfer alternated between doing the same and using the blunt of his halberd to knock them out of his way. Within a few moments, they were through the last defense between them and the dragon.
Lenneth looked back at Nanami and Jelanda, "Now! Form the barrier! We will cover you!"
Both magi stopped and faced each other while Lenneth, the warriors, and archer surrounded them. Nanami and Jelanda stood close together, both holding onto the Elemental Scepter.
"Like we practiced," Nanami told Jelanda.
Jelanda gulped and fought to keep her breathing level as she and Nanami both began the chant.
Hræzlyre saw they were about to do something and took in a big gulp of air to prepare another breath attack, but Lenneth and Arngrim both saw it coming. The mercenary grabbed a rock and wound up for a pitch.
"Don't miss," he said.
"Humph!" Lenneth scoffed in return as she held up a shimmering fist.
In all the same moment Hræzlyre's head shot forward to shoot deadly fumes down on the party, Arngrim pitched the rock right at his mouth, and Lenneth's crystalizing blast hit its mark, forming a crystal the size of a large cabinet. The crystal careened right through Hræzlyre's breath just as it was leaving his mouth and flew into the back of his throat. The dragon's head snapped backwards, and he was knocked off his balance. The dragon's front legs flailed in the air as he fell backwards into the pool with his breath streaming out over the pool.
"Direct hit!" Arngrim shouted with a toothy smile.
As Lawfer bashed the face of another animated cadaver in, his eyes saw movement in his upper peripheral. He looked up and saw many pairs of green eyes looking down on them as countless more corpse puppets descended the walls towards them.
"Company! Coming in from above!" he shouted his report.
Llewelyn glanced up and almost ran in fright. "Oh, Hlin protect us…"
The boy however took courage when Jelanda's scepter began glowing while the girls worked in-junction.
"This place has become unclean," Nanami and Jelanda chanted together. "Here in the depths of the darkness, we beseech thee in Heaven's Light. By the Divine virtue of the gods, please let me ask this place be purified, evil be banished, and henceforth unwelcome in this domain."
Then both girls raised the Elemental Scepter above their heads. The dragon's reinforcements leapt from the wall and came down as rain towards them. Even to Lenneth, time seemed to slow down as ice cold dread gripped her heart at the sight. It made her feel like a sailor on a longboat in an ocean storm.
"Unclean things of the dark, BEGONE!" both girls slammed the scepter against the ground.
A flash of light as fierce as the glow of the sun filled the ravine, ejecting every abominable creature the Undead Dragon had created from the area. Hræzlyre again screamed as the spell burned him and threatened to cast him away, too, but he clung to rocky bank with his claws and held on for dear unlife, even as chunks of his rotting skin were torn away from his form, leaving him even more skeletal.
Then, when Nanami's protective barrier had been fully cast and driven back all the evil it could, the light dimmed. The immediate area was surrounded by a gleaming dome, and all that remained within its perimeters were Lenneth, her einherjar, and one injured and angry Undead Dragon. They all looked on Hræzlyre, who shuddered in pain, wheezing and moaning. What remained of his dried skin was blackened and smoked like a burning forest. His radiant green eyes glared with enough hate to bore holes through their souls before he threw his head back to let out an earsplitting roar of challenge.
Lenneth and Arngrim as both grimaced as their ears were assaulted by the sound equivalent of being stabbed as they moved into position to fight the beast through the pain. Meanwhile Lawfer, Belenus, and Llewelyn moved to close the spaces left in the protective circle around the magi as best they could.
Nanami winced and nearly let go of the staff to plug her ears, but maintained focus on the spell. When the dragon had finished, she glanced at the undead Hræzlyre before looking toward Jelanda beside her. The two were close enough their shoulders touched as they both still gripped the Elemental Specter.
"I must let go now to assist Lady Valkyrie," Nanami told her. "Do you remember the chant to maintain the barrier?"
Jelanda nodded, and began, "This place has been cleansed by Heaven's Light, and now I beseech thee in the Heavens to keep out the dark. This place…"
Nanami let go and backed away, allowing Jelanda to sit on her knees as she continued to meditate and repeat the chant. She laid the scepter across her lap, sideways, gripping it from the underside at both ends. It continued to glow in her hands, indicating she was successfully maintaining the spell by herself. Seeing this, Nanami sighed in relief and quickly ran to join Lenneth and Arngrim, leaving the former princess being guarded by Lawfer, Belenus, and Llewelyn. The three men's eyes moved around quickly as the dragon's legions either continued to fall onto the barrier from above just to ejected into the air again, or they throw themselves against it from the sides.
"Eyes open, lads," Lawfer ordered. "Nanami said the barrier's not absolute. Kill anything that forces its way through."
"Ay," Belenus nodded. "And behold, their eyes are all Jelanda."
Jelanda's brow twitched when he said that, but she maintained focus.
"There's one!" Llewelyn shouted.
All three turned as one of the corpse puppets staggered through a tear in the barrier which closed quickly. The bony thing regained balance and ran at them, swinging an iron scythe.
"Not so fast, blasphemous one!" Belenus jumped forward with a frontal thrust.
The shrine maiden quickly joined the Valkyrie and mercenary standing before the toxic pool. They were a few good paces apart, giving Nanami space to stand between them.
"Nanami," Lenneth quietly addressed the warrior and shrine girl. "As soon as the fighting starts, Arngrim and I will split off from you and run about, attacking from anywhere we can. You stay back and cast from a distance. See that rock that comes up to your waist over there? Take cover there. Arngrim, we will stay spaced apart so the beast cannot target us at the same time."
"Yes, Lady Valkyrie," Nanami compliantly answered.
Arngrim grunted.
Hræzlyre stood half-emerged from the water's surface with his front claws resting against the bank and his decayed wings outstretched to the sides. They lacked the membrane which gave him flight in life, now appearing as a pair of extra arms sticking out of the sides of his back.
"Hey there, Sunshine," Arngrim sardonically greeted their foe.
Hræzlyre ignored him, looking only at Lenneth.
"Lenneth Valkyrie… and her oh so noble einherjar…" he mockingly greeted them. "'Tis so good to finally see you with my own eyes."
"Your own eyes?" Lenneth haughtily retorted. "You've nothing of the sort anymore. Your eyes rotted away long ago, leaving those hollow pits you've filled with dark magic with which to gaze out at the world in their place. You terrible, unnatural thing, filled with misplaced hate…"
She pointed her sword at him, issuing her own challenge. "Your sins are unspeakable and beyond count, vile necromancer, and perverter of your people's teachings! Prepare thyself for punishment, for you shall receive no mercy for what you have done!"
Hræzlyre just laughed.
"You always had a way with words, Lenneth," he said.
Lenneth looked at him circumspectly. "You claim to know me, putrid one?"
He didn't answer. Instead, Hræzlyre focused to rejuvenate himself. As he did, the pool glowed green. In alarm, Lenneth, Arngrim, and Nanami all stepped back. Then they watched as the energy flowed up from the contaminated water and into Hræzlyre's body, restoring much of the flesh he had just lost and his strength.
"Know you?" the dragon jeered. "You walked past me every time you had tea with our High Chieftain. We felt safe knowing we had the favor of Odin's favorite daughter, but your people still took her away from us! We never saw Chieftain Sothis again! What did Odin do to her, Valkyrie? WHAT?!"
Then, the dragon's head jerked back to either try biting or spitting more poison at them. Lenneth and Arngrim both tensed to react while Nanami activated the spell she'd prepared while the Valkyrie and Undead exchanged verbal bards.
"LIGHTNING BOLT!" Hræzlyre shouted.
He opened his mouth, and a ball of electricity built up between his jaws, which he fired on them.
"Oh, shit!" Arngrim shouted as he and Lenneth to jump aside.
"REFLECT!" Nanami countered.
The bolt shot towards them and then sharply rebounded onto its caster, striking Hræzlyre in the face and knocking him onto his back and into the water again.
"Arngrim, Nanami, now!" Lenneth ordered.
"On it, boss," the warrior replied.
"Yes, Lady Valkyrie!" the shrine girl complied.
As the Valkyrie took off, Arngrim lingered to stand between the pool and Nanami as she backed away before sidestepping behind the big rock Lenneth had pointed out to her. When she was crouched behind it and casting another spell, then Arngrim followed their Valkyrie.
Almost as soon as he started running, Hræzlyre burst from the pool again, sending large waves of the toxic water splashing everywhere. Lenneth raised a protective energy shield it splashed and rolled off of while Arngrim ducked behind a column and managed to avoid all but a few drops of the deadly liquid.
"NNg!" He winced as those drips burned his arms.
Hræzlyre scanned his surroundings. He didn't see the mage girl that had gotten him with his own spell, but his eyes did land on Lenneth and then the large warrior with big sword a few yards behind her.
The green glow appeared in the water again and flowed into him, healing the burns left by his own reflected Lightning Bolt. From behind the rock, Nanami watched the Undead Dragon make use of the dark magics in the tainted pool to keep regenerating. Her eyes trailed down to the pool.
"We won't get anywhere in this fight if something can't be done about that," she realized.
So, she sat down and slid the satchel down her shoulder, again taking out the various alchemic mixes used for negating the contaminants in the Thackus caves' waters.
"Now it's a question of how I want to do this," Nanami thought.
"Those eyes things, from above!"
Lawfer and Belenus glanced up as the barrier was divebombed by several eye spies. Jelanda's trio of guardians watched as the flock bounced harmlessly off the shield. Lawfer alternated between watching them and watching the corpse puppets ramming into the barrier from the ground. Even though only a couple of had gotten through and were quickly disposed of, he couldn't relax.
His visual sweep of the mob outside the barrier was interrupted by Llewelyn's shout.
"Two just got through! Look out!"
Lawfer growled, looking as two of the eye spies swooped towards them. Llewelyn fired at them, but they dove to the sides, looping around in big half-circles to fly towards the trio and Jelanda from the sides. Lawfer planted himself between the one coming in from the left, and Belenus readied himself to fight the one on the right. Llewelyn kept his bow lowered, but pulled the string, generating another arrow from the natural magics all around them. He looked all around as best he could, trying to watch his comrades' backs.
As the eye spy's retinal tail curled over its back and the stinger popped out, Lawfer had already decided on his move. He slid one of his feet forward slightly while moving the other to stay pointed forward. In all the same instant, the eye spy's tail swung back, and Lawfer took a big step forward, past its large eye, thrusting the spearhead of the halberd forward, skewering the creature's tail as it jerked forward to sting him. Then he threw all his weight into driving his halberd into the stone floor, pinning the eye spy down. With the vile thing stuck by its tail and thrashing about to break free, Lawfer raised one of his iron-booted feet and stomped the eye flat. White splattered everywhere and the tail went limp.
Belenus watched as the other eye charged him. He waited until it got almost too close before enacting his own idea.
"Llewelyn! Fire!" he ordered.
"Ay!" Llewelyn whipped his bow into position and released it.
The eye spy swayed to the side in attempt to fly past and double back around to try again. What it did not expect was for the mustachioed man to leap out with his arms outstretched, grabbing it around its retinal tail. The eye thing was snapped out of the air, landing painfully against the hard ground. Before it had a chance to react, Belenus threw himself backwards, pulling on its tail and yanking the creature back into the air. He whirled himself around in a complete rotation, swinging the shocked beast around, before raising his hands over his head down and swinging the eye beast down so it was impaled on a sharp rock sticking out the floor. The creature's eye popped, leaving a horrible mess.
Belenus's body untensed as the tail went limp. In his relief, he almost didn't see the green eyes of the corpse puppet as it stepped in close to him from the side. The noble gasped as he looked up at the well-armored ax-wielder, jumping back. A pair of swishing sounds filled the air, and a familiar glowing arrow pierced the thing's face, rendering it blind. Lacking its sight, the corpse puppet fell to the ground, lifeless.
Belenus clutched his chest as he tried to calm down. He looked at Llewelyn, who was just as relieved.
"Any time," the archer said as a preemptive "You're Welcome".
While he regenerated, Hræzlyre growled and turned to Lenneth while keeping Arngrim in the corner of his vision as the warrior stepped out from beyond the natural pillar. The Undead Dragon swiped at her with a clawed hand, and the Valkyrie threw herself into a slide at the last minute, narrowly missing his deadly claws. Hræzlyre responded by using his momentum to spin himself around and sweep his tail across the bank.
Arngrim jumped backwards, coming too close to being crushed by the large appendage. Meanwhile, Lenneth had already jumped high into the air to evade it. As Hræzlyre's front end spun back towards them, he came first to Arngrim. His head snapped forward to bite into the scarred mercenary, but Arngrim's downward stroke was quick and powerful, slicing deep into Hræzlyre's rotted gums and breaking several of his teeth. The Undead Dragon jerked back, standing almost perfectly upright in the pool, screaming in pain.
"Now!" Lenneth thought.
She took flight, hoping to beat the rejuvenating wave that'd heal the dragon in a moment. Hræzlyre saw her coming and spit out his noxious breath. Lenneth tried to pull out, but the fumes of the dragon caught up to her this time. The battle goddess curled up and willed another force shield around herself, and she was blasted away by the torrent of pressurized poison fumes. The direct shot of Hræzlyre's breath punched holes in her protective shield, and Lenneth cried in pain as she spun in the darkness. Both Arngrim and Nanami saw her tumble away out of view. The shrine girl gasped and peeked over the top of the rock towards Arngrim in worry.
With the moment of reprieve given, Hræzlyre turned on Arngrim. The mercenary slid one foot out into a wider stance, holding up Dáinsleif defensively as he prepared for the attack to come from the dragon.
"Little enough time for it," Hræzlyre thought.
Nanami stood up, aiming her fingers at the Undead Dragon. Hræzlyre noticed the movement in the corner of his eye, and spotted her. Arngrim grunted tensely, and without a second thought took off to intercept whatever the dragon intended for his teammate.
"Dampen Magic!" the shrine girl intoned.
Five glowing blue rings of light shot from Nanami's fingertips toward Hræzlyre.
"What?" he gasped as they expanded and looped around him.
Hræzlyre stumbled as the spell took effect and he felt himself weaken from the spell. It was akin to a living creature being weakened by Sap Power, as it was dark, unnatural magic which now moved Hræzlyre's body instead of muscle. The Undead Dragon recovered and lunged at Nanami with outstretched clawed hands and maw open, and Arngrim realized he wasn't going to make to it. Time slowed down to his perspective as he watched the jaws of that enormous rotting creature close in on the screaming girl.
Arngrim's only thoughts were, "Oh, shit! No, no no no! No no no! No!"
Hræzlyre felt a surge of power come from the large, scarred warrior to his left, and then heard "Finishing Strike!"
In almost the same moment, something powerful flew into his snout. Nanami fell onto her rump on the hard ground, blinking uncomprehendingly. One second the dragon's jaws were upon her, and the next, those enormous teeth were just gone. She looked up and saw Hræzlyre reeling back in the pool pointing his snout upwards, as a gleaming, fiery Arngrim braced his feet against the dragon's cheek with Dáinsleif imbedded deep within the side of the dragon's nose.
"You like picking on girls, eh?" Arngrim shouted angrily.
Then he yanked Dáinsleif out and leapt impossibly high into the air straight over Hræzlyre and then turned to face downward when he reached the peak of his ascent. Hræzlyre sucked in a breath as Arngrim came with his finisher prepared. The dragon shot his poisonous breath weapon at Arngrim, but the warrior was undaunted.
"FINAL BLAST!" Arngrim activated his attack and burned through the stream of deadly fumes as he flew towards the dragon's head.
Nanami watched as Hræzlyre's head jerked downwards as it was engulfed in a fiery blast. For a moment, she thought he was going to try eating her again, but on a second look she saw Arngrim had landed right on the dragon's tongue. Dáinsleif's blade was sticking out the dragon's chin, having sunk up to the hilt through the creature's tongue and lower jaw. Hræzlyre let out a pained choking sound, unable to properly react for a moment. Nanami saw that his entire head had been blackened from the burning he'd just endured, and she was reminded of what she needed to do. She picked up a pair of small bottles full of the magi team's chemical mixes and ran towards the edge of the toxic pool.
Hræzlyre tried to close his jaw, but Nanami's Dampen Magic spell and the damage Arngrim did to his rotting jawbones and sinews made it impossible. So, he did the one thing he could think to under this much pain and violently shook his head. Arngrim tried to hold on, but the sheer force of Hræzlyre's violent jerking dislodged him and Dáinsleif into the air. As Arngrim kicked in the air he turned headfirst towards the noxious waters he was about to fall in. He actually cried out. It was by a silver and blue blur that he was saved and suddenly found himself on the bank.
Arngrim shook off his disorientation and found himself staring into Lenneth's concerned face.
"Good. You are well," she said.
Then she turned to face Hræzlyre again. The pool glowed green again as he conjured more replenishing energy to heal his wounds in the brief moment he had before Lenneth attacked him again. His energy was split between being on the defensive against her and casting the spell to heal himself. He had forgotten about Nanami, who now stood at the pool's edge with both little bottles of alchemic solutions uncorked. He did not remember until the magical circle formed at her feet. The power flowed up through her and into the liquids in their glass containers, making them glow their colors, purple and orange.
"NORMALIZE!" Nanami invoked.
The magical properties in both solutions activated and she hurled them into the pool. A glowing wave of purple and orange energy spread out swiftly, diluting the dark magics and chemicals in the pool. The emerald gleam of the regeneration spell dulled, as its power was halved and a weaker version of the spell flowed in Hræzlyre, leaving his wounds partially unhealed. He gaped in horror before glaring at her.
"NO! YOU LITTLE NIGHTMARE!" Hræzlyre roared at her, causing spittle of gloppy blood and rancid spittle to fly from his mouth.
The back of the dragon's throat glowed as he prepared to breathe death on the shrine girl, sending more liquids from his mouth. Nanami whimpered as she slowly backed away, almost frozen in fear. Then something silver and blue zipped up and across, passing the dragon's throat. Hræzlyre gagged as his poison breath spewed from a long gash in his throat that hadn't been there before, preventing him from using it. The Undead Dragon angrily and desperately slashed at the Valkyrie as she circled around him in the air, but she was quickly than he.
Meanwhile, on the shore, Nanami pulled out a third bottle from the satchel. The solution was blue in this one. She heard footsteps and turned to see Arngrim approaching her. He stopped next to her.
"I got you covered. Just do your thing!" he said.
"Mm!" she nodded.
Above them, Hræzlyre swiped at Lenneth with his claws, forcing her to roll and spin in the air to evade him. He also tried to snap at her, but she flew too fast for him in his still-injured state. She circled around above him, preparing to divebomb him. As Hræzlyre craned his neck to with his jaws open to take another bite, Lenneth zipped right between them, causing him to chomp down painfully on broken teeth.
That did not stop him, and he again swiped at her with his claws. She banked to the side, turning herself sideways to make herself narrower as she sliced deep into his fingers, nearly severing them at the joints. Then she dipped down and landed, crouching on the bank not far from Arngrim and Nanami. She saw the shrine girl had retreated back behind the rock as Arngrim stood guard. Lenneth also saw Nanami had another spell readied as the magical properties of the blue chemical sparked and began glowing.
"That's a concoction for purifying dark magic," Lenneth realized.
She stood and turned to Hræzlyre, deciding it was better to get him in better range of Nanami's next play. The dragon was beyond angry and did not even stop to try healing himself before lunging at her again. He came in with a strike from his right hand, slashing at her with his claws. Lenneth and Arngrim back jumped back to avoid the strike. Hræzlyre immediately followed it up by bringing his right hand around again, backhanded, smacking Arngrim into the ravine wall. Lenneth flew straight up to avoid the strike just for Hræzlyre to swipe at her with his left arm. She formed a protective bubble, which bounced off the dragon's claws.
Lenneth was hurled backwards, but stopped herself much, much sooner this time and flew towards her reptilian foe again.
"Arngrim!" Nanami cried as he bounced off the wall and fell to the ground.
The shrine girl gasped as he began to lose his form, turning transparent as wisps of energy drifted away from him. Nanami set her jaw firm and faced the dragon before them, who was distracted by fighting the Valkyrie zipping around him in the air slicing up his sides whenever she could get an opening.
Nanami drew the bottle back to her side to fling its contents into the air.
"Forbidden magics of demons low and corpse goddesses cold, I reject the dark presence of thee!" As the blue chemicals sparked with more energy, Nanami thrust the bottle forward spilling the liquid into the air.
Then, instead of falling the ground, the droplets flew up towards Hræzlyre. When they hit him, a wave of blue washed over him.
"What…?" the Undead Dragon felt his body become even heavier and his movements more sluggish.
He fell forward onto the bank of the pool, barely able to hold his own weight up with his front legs. As soon as Nanami saw the effects the spell had on Hræzlyre, she turned and bolted towards Arngrim, dropping to her knees next to him.
"Must… restore…" Hræzlyre desperately thought.
Lenneth saw the pool light up a much dimmer green hue this time, and has having none of it. She divebombed Hræzlyre, easily evading a limp whip of his tail before flying over to the side of his face and jabbing her sword just under his ear. The dragon let out wheeze as pain shot through his jawline, breaking his concentration.
"First Aid!" Nanami cried.
The healing energies washed over Arngrim, restoring him enough for him maintain physical form.
"Thanks, kid," he was still winded, but gave a thumbs up to her.
Their moment was interrupted by another roar from Hræzlyre. As they looked, Lenneth touched down next to them, sliding even closer on momentum. Behind her, the dragon finally stepped out of the pool on wobbly legs. He was covered in cuts and wounds, and with his dwindling energy reserves, he was close to dying again. Seeing the creature advance, Arngrim quickly climbed to his feet while Nanami pressed her knuckles to the palm of her other hand as she began conjuring magic.
Hræzlyre glared at Lenneth and her teammates with immense hatred, but also fear and desperation.
"S-somehow these… miserable termites have managed to almost put me back in the grave!" he thought, alternating between anger and fearful frustration. "And why has my army not smashed their barrier?!"
His gaze then turned to see Jelanda on her knees maintaining that holy blockade. His puppets and eye spies pounded against it, and while some of them had broken through, but they were all swiftly dealt with by the two warriors and the archer guarding the princess. He glanced at Lenneth, Arngrim, and Nanami again in the corner of his eyes briefly before looking at Jelanda square on. Her eyes were closed as she concentrated and kept the spell going, having no idea what their true enemy intended to do.
"One chance…" Hræzlyre thought.
"He will feint an attack on us. His target is Jelanda," Lenneth quietly warned her teammates.
Nanami's closed hand tightened into a fist.
"The kid?" Arngrim cast a worried eye on Jelanda before glaring at the dragon with clenched teeth. "Over my already dead body!"
Hræzlyre's head jerked like a cobra's towards them, with his mouth open like he was about to breath poison on them, "DARK SER…!"
"LIGHTNING BOLT!" But Nanami beat him to it, unleashing nature's rage.
The several trillion watt spark of electricity struck the dragon square in the side, almost knocking him down. Lenneth sped forward like a cheetah, running low over the ground aiming for his front legs. She slashed first the wrists as she ran past, making quick but deep cuts which made Hræzlyre begin to buckle under his own weight. Then Lenneth sharply doubled back, striking the elbow joints as she zoomed past too quick to follow with the eye, causing the dragon's front limbs to give out, making him crash onto the ground.
As soon as he was down, the sound of Arngrim's battle roar filled Hræzlyre's ears, and he looked just in time to watch the scarred man bring Dáinsleif down onto his neck. The dragon's let out a pained wheezing whoosh as he felt the vertebrae break under the weight of the massive, enchanted blade. Arngrim again screamed like a madman as he yanked the sword free of the undead thing's rancid hide and then brought it down in the exact same place, cutting clean through the bone.
Hræzlyre's body tried to back away, but with the vertebrae in his neck broken, its motions were slow and awkward, leaving the dragon's head dragging limply across the ground.
"Oh, no, you don't!" Arngrim chased after the dragon, quickly raising and bringing Dáinsleif down a third time, fully decapitating their enemy.
The momentum paired with the sudden loss of Hræzlyre's head caused the body to jerk back and clumsily fall over on its side before going still where it lay. Arngrim smirked, shouldering his sword and walking over to put his foot triumphantly on the dragon's snout. While he gave a cocky "Heh!", Lenneth appeared beside him, but her eyes were still on the dragon's head as though she expected it to do something in that state.
From the other side of the battle, Lawfer heard the booming crash behind him. With none of the corpse puppets and eye spies currently breaking through, he dared a look over his shoulder to see the dragon's headless body lying dead.
He smiled brightly, "Look, they've slain the field!"
Belenus and Llewelyn also looked over their shoulders, and smiled. They all began to celebrate, but then their attention was quickly drawn back to the dragon's legion of abominations as they continued to pound away at the barrier. The three men looked around in bewilderment.
"Why are they still moving, then?" Llewelyn asked.
"Jelanda, do not stop yet," Lawfer told the kneeling girl.
She nodded without looking up from her meditation, "This place has been cleansed by Heaven's Light, and now I beseech thee in the Heavens to keep out the dark. This place…"
"If the field is slain, this should be over," Belenus said.
On the other front, Nanami ran towards Arngrim excitedly at seeing the dragon dead, presumably for good this time.
"Well done, Arngrim," was her exuberant squeal of a compliment.
Her excitement died the instant Lawfer's voice rang out.
"Arngrim, get away from it! It still lives!"
"Wha…?" Arngrim looked over, and sure enough, he also saw all the corpse puppets and eye spies alive.
An angry hiss escaped the head of the beast, causing Nanami to scream and Arngrim to jump away, holding up Dáinsleif to take another slice at Hræzlyre. Lenneth, however, regarded the head coolly. Although she did give his prone body a sideways look.
"Damn you!" Hræzlyre hissed at them.
His emerald eyes were flashing from dimmer and brighter as he struggled to cling to his unlife.
"Even now, you endure?" Lenneth was almost amused despite her disgust and puzzlement. "Is your misplaced sense of revenge really so important to you that you would sacrifice many for it, even if you must do it as only a head now?"
Hræzlyre snarled back, "Spare me the sermon! I did not survive the fires of Odin's onslaught just to bandy crooked words with one of his puppets!"
Lenneth clenched the hilt of her sword in its sheath so tightly, her hand quivered with rage. Nanami saw the Valkyrie's mask of coolness break for that flickering moment, and backed away from her in fear.
"Very well, then," Lenneth raised her palms to Hræzlyre's head. "If that is the way you feel about it."
The dragon snorted dismissively. "Before you banish my soul to Helheim or wherever, now this, Lenneth Valkyrie. The Dragon Orb has not had its guardians in a very long time, and its location is thought lost to the realms. What's more, Midgard dies all around you, almost a dried husk. You've not questioned why?"
Lenneth stayed her hand. Doubt invaded her mind, and she found herself unable to act.
"If I am so wrong in what I say about the Aesir being at fault, then what was Sothis even doing between Realms, where she could fall from Yggdrasil altogether?" Hræzlyre demanded. "Midgard dies while the other realms still thrive, and the gods do nothing? In all this, you have not asked where the Dragon Orb rests?"
Lenneth's hand lowered as she slowly looked away from the dragon and stared out into the distance as these doubts and questions were dragged to the forefront of her mind. Arngrim looked at her in the corner of his eye. His already grim expression turned graver yet as he saw the immutable anxiety behind her eyes. Nanami looked between Hræzlyre and Lenneth.
"Lady Valkyrie, it just can't be true, right?" she asked.
Lenneth's head slowly turned to face her, but she did not answer. She opened her mouth, but the goddess hesitated to answer the girl. She realized how little she knew about the state of Midgard and the resting place of the Dragon Orb.
"LADY VALKYRIE!" Llewelyn cried from the other front.
Lenneth and her teammates all whirled around to see the other team struggling. The holy barrier was giving out as Jelanda's reserves waned. By now, all three men were preoccupied with multiple opponents.
"Oh, no! Jelanda!" Nanami cried out and ran to help her.
It was all the girl's three guardians could do to keep their enemies fended off to protect the ex-princess.
"Lady Valkyrie!" Lawfer was practically pleading for help.
Lenneth hesitated no more. She snapped back around to face Hræzlyre and raised a gleaming hand.
"Unclean thing, you shall be purified, and your soul sent to its eternal rest!" she loudly proclaimed.
The goddess laid her hand on the side of the beast's head. Her body glowed with swirling white and red of her power surged. Hræzlyre howled in agony as his soul resisted her pull with everything he had. Lenneth tried lifting her hand from the rotten flesh of the beast to begin untethering his soul, but he clung to that skin and bone with everything he had. Lenneth narrowed her eyes in indignant rage.
"You will allow yourself to be released from this cage of flesh!" she shouted.
Lenneth grabbed hold with the other hand, throwing everything she had to extracting Hræzlyre from his undying state. This time, when she drew her hands away from his body, her fingers were tensed and locked into a grabbing position as she began pulling his soul free, but the going was slow.
"No!" Hræzlyre protested. "I. WILL NOT! GO WITH YOU! NO! NO NO NO!"
"Vengeful creature, your reign of terror over this island ends now," Lenneth forcefully called out to him. "You will answer my call and allow yourself to pass on from this realm! I declare it!"
Then Lenneth reached out mentally, feeling the soul tethers Hræzlyre held onto his body with. She released his soul with one hand, drew her sword back out with the other. With a powerful stroke, she cut through the dark threads of his spirit, fully yanking him loose. She now held him in the palm of her hands. To Arngrim's eyes it looked like a ball of black mist that bulged in random places as though it contained a wild beast desperately trying to escape.
"Good. Now that I have you," Lenneth said.
She held up Hræzlyre's over her head, calling, "To Helheim, defiler!"
Then the dragon's soul screamed one more time as it burst into particles which then faded out. With the deed done, Lenneth turned to Hræzlyre's army of corpse puppets and floating eyes. She and the einherjar on both fronts watched as they froze in place at first. Then, as the green faded from their eyes, they all fell limp on the floor, lifeless.
The three fighters around Jelanda all signed in relief, exhaustedly letting their arms fall to their sides. Nanami sat on her knees in front of an exhausted Jelanda, holding her by the upper arms as the former princess continued to repeat the chant.
"This place… has been cleansed by Heaven's Light, and…"
"It's alright, you can stop now," Nanami told her.
Jelanda lifted her head. Now that Nanami said that, she did notice things had gone quiet. Jelanda looked around, seeing all the lifeless former undead enemies around them. She sighed in relief, falling forward into Nanami's chest as she ceased maintain the spell. The barrier fell, leaving the area darker without its glow.
"Heh, heh, that was a good fight!" Arngrim laughed.
He sauntered over and kicked Hræzlyre's now lifeless head, seemingly unaware of the stares he got from the others. Lenneth sighed and turned away from him, choosing instead to greet the others as they approached to reconvene.
"Well done," Lenneth congratulated them. "Not a single one of the dragon's minions got through and hindered us."
"I should hope not, Lady Valkyrie," Lawfer tiredly said. He was practically using his halberd as a walking sticking in his exhausted state. "We gave 'em everything we got, and Her Ma- Jelanda, did, too."
Nanami and Jelanda were close behind him. The shrine girl was supporting the exhausted princess around the shoulders and carrying her scepter for her. Jelanda was almost sleepwalking. Or rather, sleep shuffling with her head swaying back and forth and her eyes mostly lidded.
"I think everyone needs a rest, if it is not too forward of me to say, Lady Valkyrie," Nanami stated.
"I concur," Lenneth took in the just how dead on their feet everyone was. "Come. Rest yourselves in the cave beyond. Arngrim and I will look for the Unicorn Medallion."
Then she turned on her heels and began leading them past the fallen form of Hræzlyre. She paused only a moment before passing him by, as Hræzlyre's questions again played in her head.
"That is correct… with the dragon tribe gone. No one guards the Dragon Orb. Midgard quickly approaches ruin. Is that why?" she wondered.
Then she quickly walked past the now just dead dragon. The entire group had to walk right by it as the area narrowed, so everyone got a good whiff of the dragon's stench.
"Oh, by the gods!" Belenus plugged his nose as he quickened pace. "Nothing in the realms should smell this foul?"
"Eh, you get used to it," Arngrim shrugged.
"I was afraid you would say something like that…" Belenus moaned.
"I can concur," Lawfer's voice was somewhat muffled behind his gloved hand. "'Tis better to get used to it now than later. No doubt we'll get nosefuls of things just as putrid once we are in Odin's army."
"Bleh," Jelanda retched before getting her gag reflex under control. "Oh, perish the thought."
"There will be no perishing of such thoughts," Lenneth called back to her from the front of the line. "What Lawfer and Arngrim said is true. You best just get used to it. The awful things which assault the senses will not be ceasing, whether when following me, or in one of Einherjar Units."
"Ugh… Yes, Lady Valkyrie," Jelanda gagged.
"There, there," Nanami padded her back. "We'll go to that garden you showed me out behind Valhalla when we return."
"Anything to wash out this stench," Jelanda moaned.
"Ugh. 'Twas not even this bad in the Forest of Woe," Llewelyn covered his face with his sleeve.
Arngrim looked over his shoulder Lawfer, rolling his eyes. "Kids."
Lawfer shrugged in response.
After they were past the dragon, they walked around the pool. Although Nanami's attempts to dampen the toxic qualities of the chemicals and dark magic certainly diluted its green color almost to a normal bluish tint, they could still smell that something was wrong with it and kept as wide a birth as best they could as they approached the jagged, triangular entrance of Hræzlyre's lair.
Lenneth paused just inside, scanning the area. It was unlike any other draconian den she'd ever seen. It had not been reshaped into a homey abode for an intelligent creature and its treasure horde. The natural formations of the cave had been left alone and intact, and there was not a single gold coin or any other horded piece of treasure. Not even a single stack of gems or diamonds decorating the cave. In fact, it felt even danker and drearier than the rest of the Thackus tunnels they had encountered so far. There were just a few chests in the back corner beside the entrance of the next tunnel.
Then Lenneth noticed something else, but it was in the middle of the large chamber.
Lenneth blinked in confusion, "An altar?"
As she approached the stone slab, the einherjar filtered in, also getting a look at the area.
"We sure this is a dragon's lair?" Arngrim asked.
"An Undead one's," Belenus replied. "I suppose his obsession with revenge superseded a need for soft metals to bed on."
Jelanda glanced over at Lenneth as she marched towards something in the middle of the cavern. "Lady Valkyrie?"
They quickly followed her to the slab, then saw what had gotten her attention. Their eyes ran over the Runes inscribed on the side of the sacrificial altar, of which the central one was the Hel Rune. They'd all recognize that "N"-shaped symbol anywhere. The fact the altar was covered in blood stains became apparent, too.
"Ghastly!" Belenus gasped.
"I think we found out how he was making the corpse puppets," Lawfer observed grimly. "From what I understand of the dragon tribes' magic, creating golems and giving movement to otherwise inert things was their forte. That army of horrors the beast created likely used a perverted form of that magic."
"You would be correct in that assessment," Lenneth answered without looking away from the altar.
She'd noticed something else now, a stone bust had been placed on the altar. It lacked a head, but it had a necklace from which the very medallion they sought hung.
"Huh?" Arngrim grunted as he saw it. "I don't get it. Why not hide or destroy the bobble? It's just a way for someone to ruin his plans."
"That…" Lenneth stopped as she realized she had no answer. "Is a good question, actually."
"Hmm…" Jelanda tapped her chin at she thought it over. She glanced down at the side of the slab, looking over the runes again, with her eyes lingering on the Hel Rune. "Well, it appears as though he was colluding with Queen Hel. Maybe he just didn't trust her."
"Yes," Lenneth thoughtfully answered. "A failsafe in case his pact with her went sour. That sounds just devious enough for that sinner."
Arngrim looked at the goddess. "And that's twice now we've dealt with someone serving her directly."
"Grim patterns emerge," Belenus muttered.
Lenneth looked at the medallion again and slowly approached it, but did not try to claim it just yet. The Valkyrie searched for a trap with her senses, but she detected no curse or any other protective enchantment on the altar, the little stand, or the trinket. So, she carefully reached out her hand, fully expecting something to jump out and bite at her fingers. Yet those five digits safely wrapped around the medallion's cord, lifted it from where it had been set, and claimed it. Lenneth looked from the Medallion to the altar, still not full believing how easy that was. The medallion was round, with several runes carved into it. She could sense both the unicorn and phoenix magic still infused in it.
The whole room seemed to release tension once Lenneth held the Unicorn Medallion in her hands with no incident having befallen them all. She turned and presented to her team.
"We are one step closer to finishing Henry's mission. Rest up a bit. Arngrim and I will investigate those trunks in the corner."
"Yes, Lady Valkyrie," half her team responded.
Before heading over to the treasure chests, Lenneth handed the medallion to Belenus, who slid it into one of his jacket's breast pockets.
The wall weakens…
The beasts of the deep which were dammed up within the Cave of Thackus could feel it. Their one avenue out of the darkness that had been their home since the dark magics and toxins had birthed them was soon to break.
Free, free! They thought. Free to roam, free to live.
And they watched as another crack formed in the seal.
"Ugh, keeping that holy barrier up was more difficult than I imagined," Jelanda moaned.
Nanami giggled in response. The two magi sat on a pair of small rocks a bit shorter than the average chair.
"Yes, that's why priests and mikos must train for years at the temples in Hai-Lan to erect and maintain them," Nanami answered. "I wasn't sure you could do it without any prior meditation, but Lady Valkyrie was insistent I was needed for the dragon."
"Well, how did I do?" Jelanda asked.
Nanami hesitated, with her answer wavering between "Better than I thought you could," and "Good for a beginner."
"You did very well," the shrine girl ended up saying. "Especially for having never cast it before."
"Well, of course, I did!" Jelanda boasted. "I am this party's premiere mage, after all!"
Unseen by the girl, Belenus and Lawfer both bit their lips. Llewelyn was perched on a tall rock over the other two men who sat on the floor.
"Of course," Nanami answered perkily, opting to just indulge the other girl.
The conversation was halted by the sound fluttering wings. Jelanda instinctively held up one of her arms. Goldie and Truly touched on her forearm.
"There you two are," the former princess smiled. "Ready to see this through?"
Truly cooed something in dove.
"Ready as we can ever be," Goldie translated. "You have the Medallion?"
"Belenus does," Jelanda nodded towards him with her head.
The Lassen noble glanced at her questioningly, and uttered, "Oh!"
He pulled out the Unicorn Medallion, showing it to Truly. "Rest thy nerves, we have retrieved this important item from the dragon and his horde of abominations."
"Thank goodness," Goldie translated Truly's next response.
"Thank goodness," Jelanda repeated.
Belenus nodded and pocketed the medallion again.
They heard metallic footfalls approaching them from the other end of the chamber. Everyone looked up as Lenneth and Arngrim returned, bearing a few items from Hræzlyre's scant treasure horde.
"Only a few items of note, unfortunately," Lenneth announced.
"Hey, Lawfer, got somethin' for ya," Arngrim held up another halberd.
"Eh?" the young knight looked it over.
It was much like the one he had, but from the Runes adorning its blades and body, he could tell it had been enchanted.
"This one's blessed with rare Holy runes to slay the kinds of things we fight, so it'll have some extra kick," the scarred warrior explained. "Looks like it was used by the Templars."
He then flipped it over in his grip so the butt of the pole faced Lawfer. The younger man got up accepted it, looking the item over.
"The craftsmanship is exquisite," Lawfer admitted.
He set his halberd aside and moved away from everyone to give the Holy Halberd a few experimental swings. It was only a bit lighter than his old one, but if his swings were just a bit crisper, he could make up the difference.
"That adjustment would be worth the advantage of having a holy-aligned weapon in my hands," Lawfer thought.
He then looked over the blades. "It seems there is more silver mixed into the metal on both of them. Better for killing Undead."
Then he remembered Count Orlok, how he'd betrayed him, and tried to enact a coup against Artolia, using Lawfer's own desire to help Roland. The young knight's anger burned again, through fierce eyes.
"A perfect weapon for paying him back," he concluded.
He shouldered the weapon in the holder, and then glanced back at Arngrim with a smile. "Thank you kindly."
"Heh, I knew you'd love it," Arngrim answered with a laugh.
Lawfer laughed with him as he came back to the group, stopping by his old halberd, leaning against the cave wall, discarded. He looked torn at the sight of it and picked it up.
"Sorry, old friend," he apologized to the tool of war. "But it looks like there's going to be a permanent place for you in Valhalla's armory after this mission is done."
Lenneth, meanwhile, had something for Nanami. It was in a small rectangular box, which she held out for the shrine girl to take.
"'Tis a wand. Again, holy aligned, and perfect for the kind of magic you've mastered," the Valkyrie explained.
"Thank you, Lady Valkyrie," Nanami took the box and opened it.
Inside was an ivory wand with several runes engraved upon it. Even as Nanami took it out and ran her hands over the smooth surface, she could feel the natural magics being funneled through it.
"'Tis perfect!"
Lenneth gave her a small smile before moving onto Belenus, and presented a cutlass for him. The scabbard was dark, finely polished wood with gold plating at the base and top. Belenus accepted the blade and pulled it partially out.
"Thank you, Lady Valkyrie," he said. "Hmm? These Runes… A Radiance Sword. Also Holy aligned. This Undead Dragon had curious collecting habits."
"All the better for us in our hunt for Lady Beliza and Count Orlok," Lenneth commented.
Belenus's eyes darkened as he remembered the night Orlok had nearly killed Asaka once more.
"Indeed," he sharply said.
Belenus then briskly resheathed the sword before strapping it to his belt beside his normal sword.
"Shall we head down now?" Lenneth asked her subordinates. "You are rested well enough to fight again if need be?"
"Always," Lawfer answered.
"Ready as ever," Belenus asked.
"As if you gotta ask?" Arngrim smirked.
"Ready," Jelanda and Nanami chimed in.
"Yeah," Llewelyn hopped down from his perch. "Ready."
"So be it, then," Lenneth replied.
With their new gear and renewed strength, they followed her past the opened chests and into the next tunnel, which sharply dropped off again. This time, the shaft was much shorter, and they could even see the bottom from above. They'd drop into the middle of a passage below. One way took them into an area directly below where they stood, while the other kept going straight. They also saw the remnants of an old stone staircase built into the walls of the shaft, leading down. Over half of it was missing, having broken off over the years.
So, Lenneth jumped over the edge, taking her einherjar with her and they floated down. Once they stood on solid ground again, they first looked ahead, and saw passage stretched out into the distance. When they turned to look down the other way, they found their objective within view. At the end of the tunnel on the back wall of a perfectly square chamber, the sluice gate stood. It was a vertical gate made of rusted iron bathed under the eerie glow of magical lamplight set into the ceiling over it, left behind by the original engineers and magi who dammed the toxic water up to begin with. A giant yellow magical circle flickered erratically upon the metal, a telltale sign of the seal eroding.
Lenneth hesitated before giving the order to approach. There is just… was. No fanfare, no trap, no obscure puzzle to overcome, no golem guardians.
"Well, I suppose having an underground labyrinth full of monsters would be deterrent enough," she thought with a shrug.
The Valkyrie walked past her einherjar. When they entered the manmade chamber of the gate, they realized they were stepping out onto a platform, and the architects had carved out the chamber to make the floor lower, much lower. The platform at the same level as the tunnel and crossed the breadth of the chamber, ending a short distance from the sluice gate. There was some kind of metal box at the end of the platform whose purpose they could only guess at the moment.
When they looked down, the purpose of having the floor be so far below them became apparent. It was to give whoever came to reform the seal time to do so. There was about a foot of water covering the floor some twenty feet below, but it wasn't toxic.
"Looks like ordinary water, but I can't imagine how that would be possible," Belenus remarked.
Lenneth glanced at some crystals which were set into the walls down near the floor and recognized the glowing runes that adorned them.
"Neutralizing spells," Lenneth said. "They gradually purified any water that's leaked out of the sluice gate while someone maintained the seal. Clever."
"Seems a little too easy to me," Arngrim remarked. His eyes scanned the room top-to-bottom; wall-to-wall. "I don't much like just stumblin' on what I'm lookin' for without even one more thing in the way. It usually means we'll take a bite to the ass some other way."
"Ever the optimist, old friend," Lawfer said with an attempt at a smile.
A look into his eyes showed he was thinking the exact same thing, though.
The Valkyrie then began examining the metal box as they got closer. After another moment, Lenneth, Nanami, and Belenus looked the box over up close and spotted the levers and buttons along its top.
"Oh, it's a control console," Lenneth spoke.
The Valkyrie looked over her shoulder at her einherjar.
"Arngrim, Lawfer, Llewelyn, Jelanda, guard our rear. Belenus, Nanami. Assist me with this," she ordered.
"Fine by me," Arngrim turned away.
"At once, Lady Valkyrie," Belenus approached whilst resheathing his new holy cutlass.
Nanami was close behind him, holding the satchel close to her body since its contents were about to be of use again. Arngrim and Jelanda stood about six feet behind the shrine girl while Lawfer and Llewelyn went back to the chamber's entrance to keep an eye on the tunnel.
The Valkyrie and the noble murmured among themselves as they recalled what they could remember of Henry's instructions. The plaque labels under the various buttons, switches, and levers had been completely rusted over, rendering them unreadable. The only thing they could discern for certain was the round slot in the top center was where the Unicorn Medallion fit to power the whole system, and even that was only discernible from the depression's shallow, round shape.
"'Tis as that human spirit said it might be. The panel's too rusted for any writing to be legible still," Lenneth said. She turned to look back at Nanami. "Alright, read us the instructions for using this console."
"Yes, Lady Valkyrie," Nanami took out Henry's spellbook again.
She opened it to the first page where a series of fresh notes had been scribbled onto it, the instructions for the control panel. The only thing saving them from having to bumble through the controls until they found out what worked was Henry's good memory, and good old-fashioned creativity. They'd used magic to burn the end of Henry's wand to write the instructions in his spellbook with the ash.
Nanami breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the instructions were smeared, but still readable.
"The buttons on the lower left control the sluice gate's locks. The left unlocks it, middle relocks it, and right breaks the old magic seal on the gate."
Belenus shook his head at that. "I do wish they had concocted another of resealing this gate. When we remove the old seal, the door will be completely unprotected."
"The Flenceburg magi and engineers seemed to plan for that," Lenneth commented as she looked over the edge of the platform. "They made the area below deep enough to buy time if something were to force the gate open and the toxic waters began to spill out."
Nanami cleared her throat, and continued, "The gauges in the middle, left-to-right, detect water pressure, contamination levels, and the population of anything born of the dark magics in there. And finally, the two levers on the right. The left lever drains the water from the bottom of the room, and right one opens and closes the gate."
Then Nanami looked up from her reading. "But first, you need to insert the Unicorn Medallion into the slot to power the whole system up. It also begins the resealing spell."
"Understood, thank you," Lenneth answered. She then held out her hand toward Belenus. "The Medallion, if you would be so kind."
"Oh, of course," Belenus took it from his pocket and handed it to her. "Although…"
He glanced back to Nanami who'd flipped forward to review the sealing spell again.
"I would give her a moment to prepare," he finished.
Lenneth considered it with a hum, looking down at the water already collected below them.
"We should drain what's already below us just to give ourselves even a few seconds more," she said.
So, she inserted the Unicorn Medallion into the round depression, holding her breath that the system wasn't too rotted to still work. When the machinery groaned to life, she released her breath. She was still filled with trepidation as she grabbed the left lever and pulled. At first, it did not want to move, so she grabbed it with both hands and pulled with all her might.
"Please, allow me to assist, Lady Valkyrie," Belenus offered.
She nodded, and he grabbed the lever as well, adding his own weight. Together, they pulled. The pedal loudly moaned as they forced it down. When it had clicked into place, the Valkyrie and the noble looked down, and were delighted to see the cleansed water drained from the room, revealing a metal grated floor below. They were just about to push the lever back up when Arngrim suddenly spoke from right behind them.
"Need help with that?"
Belenus visibly jumped, and Lenneth barely contained her surprise. She swallowed back her irritation from being taken unawares and faced Arngrim with a passive look.
"If you would, please?" she answered.
"Roger," Arngrim grabbed the lever and pushed it back up.
Although he was able to move the lever back into its original position, even he grunted from strain as the rusted machine parts resisted being moved again. They heard the drain gates below shut again.
"Hopefully, that means everything still works," Belenus muttered quietly.
"Indeed," Lenneth's eyes were drawn to the gate again.
Arngrim and Belenus noticed her wary expression.
"What do you sense, Lady Valkyrie?" the noble asked.
"Great evil. We cannot fail," she answered grimly.
"Alright," Nanami closed the book. "I'm ready."
Arngrim backed off, giving the shrine girl room to take up a spot at the end of the platform. An ominous feeling set into the room as the moment had come. Arngrim glanced back Lawfer, Jelanda, and Llewelyn, who gave nods, although they did not look ready at all. The scarred warrior nodded back, and set his attention on the sluice gate. He rolled his shoulders, loosening up.
"There's always a fight," he thought. "Whatever comes through that gate is gonna wish it stayed in there."
He smirked wickedly.
As Nanami began to meditate, holding up her new wand, Lenneth reached for the button which undid the previous seal. She stopped, hovering her finger over there a moment.
"Be ready. Anything could happen once I press this button," the Valkyrie warned her team.
Belenus stepped back, drawing his new holy cutlass as the other einherjar positioned themselves in a staggered formation around the platform. Lenneth glanced around at them one more time, and then pushed the button. The glowing seven-pointed magic circle upon the gate dimmed and then was dispelled.
"The die is cast," Lenneth thought with great reservation.
In the depths of the underwater toxic lake behind the sluice gate, something lurking within it felt the seal vanish.
Gone? Free! Come! Come! We are free! The creature then shot through the noxious water, making straight for the gate. Within a moment, maybe two, the square near the bottom of the wall came into its sights, and instead of slowing down, it increased its speed through the water, practically flying into the heavy metal door.
BANG! The entire party jolted in alarm as something crashed into the door from the other side. Lenneth had jumped back from the control console with her arms raised. They had all gone still, even Nanami, who had stopped in the middle of the opening hand motions. The shrine girl then realized she had interrupted the ritual, and her face twisted in frustration.
"Damn!" she thought.
Then she took a breath and started over, willing herself not to rush, but do it correctly. As she started over, the thing on the other side of the gate rammed the gate again, but this time, Nanami was not caught off her guard and continued the opening step of the sealing ritual. Lenneth stepped up beside her again, taking up position at the controls, eyes locked on the gate.
Open! Open! The thing on the other side pounded the gate with its limbs.
After a few minutes of trying to bust through the gate, it began feeling around it edges, somehow knowing it opened upwards. The creature didn't know how it knew it. It just seemed to. Then its appendages found their way towards the underside of the gate and experimentally pulled up.
On the other side, the einherjar watched in horror as the gate jerked up slightly, but the locks held, for at least the moment. Then the jerking continued, becoming more violent and frenetic. Then the jerking stopped as the beast on the other side braced itself against the wall and began pulling upwards with every ounce of its strength. A metallic groan was the creature's reward.
Working! Working! Break! Open!
Lenneth gripped the sides of the control console tightly. The locks were straining and even sounded like they would give out soon. They had to do something. She glanced at Nanami, who pointed her wand towards the gate as she continued chanting.
"We need but a moment for her to complete the ritual," Lenneth thought.
She looked at the controls again as another scraping metallic sound made her grimace.
"I am opening the gate," she decided aloud.
"What?" Belenus balked.
In the back, Jelanda covered her mouth to stifle her panicked gasp while Lawfer took a single step back, but gave no more ground. Llewelyn fought to keep his breathing under control.
"Be ready," Lenneth called back.
Nanami twitched as she saw Lenneth unlock the gate in the corner of her eye, but the shrine girl maintained focus and continued working through the steps.
The locks clicked open, releasing the door. After a couple more thumps, whatever was on the other began to force the door open. Lenneth braced herself against the floor and pulled on the lever to open the gate with everything she had. Belenus watched, wanting her to stop, but then another groan of metal sent a wave of dread down him. It was different from the ones from before, sounding like something about to break.
Belenus looked at the gate, and it was resisting to being slowly forced open. As putrid green water began pouring in, he observed as the gate tried to push back down just to be forced upwards again, and scraping metal sound started anew. The noble's eyes widened as he realized the gate would break if the beast on the other side kept pulling.
Without another conscious thought, he jumped in beside Lenneth and together, they yanked the lever down. The door opened on its own accord, and gallons of water spilled into the chamber. Something fell out with it.
"Close it!" Lenneth ordered the instant the creature was through.
As they started to push it back up, Arngrim quickly joined them and with his help, the lever quickly slid into its upright position and clicked into the place. The sluice gate slammed down, blocking anymore water from escaping, and with the press of a button, the locks clamped shut.
First, they looked at the gate, which still stood intact, with no ruptures they could discern. Lenneth's eyes fell to the waters which had flowed into the chamber. Even in just the moment the gate was open, something had managed to escape into half-flooded space below, and was a swimming around in it.
Lenneth turned to her team. "Defend Nanami!"
Arngrim stepped back again, taking up a spot just a couple of paces behind the shrine girl to the right side of the platform, looking for any sign of movement in that direction. Lenneth remained by the control, hand to the hilt of her sword. Belenus stood guard on Namami's left, watching keenly for anything in that direction.
Lawfer, Jelanda, and Llewelyn slowly walked the length of the platform, constantly looking in both directions, awaiting the unavoidable clash with whatever beast had been let out. Tentacles emerged from the surface of the water and wrapped themselves around the platform pillar nearest to the chamber entrance.
"It's over here!" Llewelyn shouted.
Everyone turned and saw him standing at the edge on the right side of the platform. He already had the bowstring pulled back, and released the energy bolt into one of the tentacles feeling its way up the pillar. The pink arm snapped back into the water in pain. As the others lined up at the edge, looking down on their opponent, a massive squid head broke the surface of the water.
"A squid with octopus tentacles? 'Tis a kraken!" Jelanda cried.
Two of the creature's tentacles shot up, reaching for them. Llewelyn fired again, but this time, the sea-beast was not deterred. Its massive limbs shot up to their full height, stopping just a few feet higher than the party, and then snapped down towards them. Lenneth and Arngrim's swords flew, slicing off the ends of the creature's tentacles.
Llewelyn aimed and released another bolt, just missing one of its eyes. The kraken flinched, and its eyes frantically fluttering as it sank back into the water. Lenneth cursed how murky the water still was, and looked at the purifying crystals along the sides. They weren't working fast enough to make the water safe and clear. The creature could be anywhere below.
"Spread out and keep watch until it emerges again," Lenneth ordered.
"Over there!" Belenus pointed left.
The kraken broke the surface near the wall on their left, and raised two tentacles, which sparked with electricity. Jelanda gasped and also began casting with urgency. Llewelyn started to pull the bowstring tight, but Lenneth raised a hand to stop no.
"No! Ice Crystal! Now!" she barked.
The boy nodded and wordlessly reached into one of the pouches Jelanda had given him, hastily producing a handful of spell crystals, one of which was the very one they needed. Lawfer stepped in and grabbed the blue Ice Crystal, choosing not to wait for Llewelyn to finish fumbling with them, and pitched it straight at the kraken.
Lawfer's throw had been just in time, as an electrical arc passed between the kraken's tendrils as it charged up. When the Ice Crystal flew into that current, it shattered on contact, shooting several ice spears out at random, injuring the sea-beast and startling it into prematurely firing its spell off. The entire chamber shook as the ceiling and wall behind the kraken cracked.
Belenus cried out as a chunk of the ceiling fell and landed in the water right next to the stone platform, splashing the toxic substance everywhere. Lenneth raised her arms to shield herself from the green droplets and foam, and let out a pained grunt as it burned against her upper arms and legs. In the water, kraken had five ice spears sticking out of it as it sunk painfully into the dirty green water.
Jelanda had fallen onto her knees, gasping for breath from shock. She swallowed and shook her head as she came back reality.
"I… somehow still have the spell ready," she realized.
She stood back, looking down at the water.
"Wait for the opportune moment," she told herself.
Beside them, while they battled the kraken and caused all manner of noise and disruption, Nanami's concentration had not broken. As the others fanned out to relocate the kraken a third time, Nanami began the final chant to raise the new seal. Nanami placed one hand on her heart, and raised the other which clutched the wand above her head.
"I beseech thee in the heavens," she chanted. "Oh, great Tyr, god of war, and god of justice and law. Please lend this unworthy mortal your strength."
Her ivory wand began glowing with a golden light as she chanted, and she moved it in the air, drawing Tyr's rune, which resembled an arrow pointing up.
"With his spear, he slays his enemies. With his shield, he holds back the darkness. With calm and rational balance, he presides over law and justice. With his right arm, he tricks the wolf. With these principles, I form the pillar of this seal. By Tyr's authority, I establish this sigil and close off the road ahead to all that is evil!"
Then she lowered the wand, holding it vertically in front of her face. Then she thrust it forward at the sluice gate.
"In Tyr's name, I declare the way is closed!" Nanami yelled.
An arc of golden energy fired from Nanami's wand, striking the sluice gate. She redrew the seven-pointed sigil upon its rusted surface, finishing quickly. Then, with one final zap of Tyr's power, the seal was cemented and shined with a burning light that did not flicker like the old seal, but with a consistent radiancy as it locked all the evil which had threatened to pour out within once more.
Nanami looked on her work, and smiled.
"It is done," she said. "Now we…"
Then the stone platform shook, throwing everyone around. Nanami cried out, almost falling over. Behind her, Jelanda did fall over, but was caught and steadied by Lawfer.
"I have you!" he held her by the shoulders while she trembled.
"The beast seeks to collapse the platform!" Lenneth cried.
She ran over to the console and yanked down the lever to drain the water. Under the surface, the kraken was just about ready to ram the pillars again when the drains below the grated floor opened. The beast felt itself pulled downwards, and struggled against the tide, but the flow was too strong. The kraken was pulled to the floor as the water drained out.
Above it, the party looked over the side again, watching as the water drained until it was shallow enough for them to see the kraken again. With the current gone and no longer pulling it down, the kraken reached forward with its tentacles and pulled itself across the grated floor with surprising, even alarming, speed towards the nearest pillar. Lenneth looked down at the lower half of the chamber, still soaked with the dark magic-laden water which would harm them with a touch.
"Nanami, purify the chamber," she ordered.
"Yes, Lady Valkyrie," the shrine girl complied.
The kraken saw Nanami beginning to cast, and stopped. It raised its tentacles, charging up another shock, much more quickly.
"FIRE LANCE!" from Jelanda's scepter rained down a series of fireballs on the sea-monster.
The kraken was forced flat against the grated floor by the impacts, and again discharged its spell too early. Lightning arced throughout the wet damp lower half of the chamber, but no further damage was done.
Nanami looked down on the area below, training her wand on it, "Normalize!"
From it poured a mist which floated down, covered the floor, dispelling the dark magics and chemicals.
"Now!" Lenneth commanded, pointing her sword at the kraken.
She leapt over the side, bringing the einherjar with her. The kraken had just recovered from being blasted when they landed at the bottom of the chamber. When Lenneth touched on her feet and one hand, she was relieved not to feel the sting of anything corrosive. Nanami's spell had neutralized al the dangerous magics and chemicals again.
The kraken looked at them and lashed out with a tentacle, which made a whipping motion they were forced to dodge. While Lenneth, Lawfer, Llewelyn, and Nanami dodged to the creature's right. Arngrim, Jelanda, and Belenus went to its left.
"Do we charge it?" Lawfer asked.
"Not just yet. Those arms will be a problem," Lenneth answered. "It can reach you from there and slap you away. We will need to begin incapacitating them first."
The kraken looked from one grouping to the other and unfurled its tentacles again.
"Be ready," Lenneth shouted. "I can at least attempt to get close while the rest of you distract its arms."
She turned her sword over on its side and drew up beside her face, intending to stab the sea-monster before them. When four of its sucker-covers appendages came down to smash them, she jumped up, and the kraken only slapped the floor where she'd stood. She landed on its tentacles sped up the length of the limb, running towards the body. She was an incoming twinkle in the thing's eyes, and it reacted on instinct, leaning its body back and spewing ink from its sacs. Lenneth sprang over the turret of black glop, only getting hit with small droplets as she flew past its head, cleaving a great, long gash across the kraken's flesh.
Back with the einherjar, Lawfer had dodged one tentacle and split the end of the other one down the middle with his halberd while Llewelyn pumped another full of arrows as quickly as he could. Nanami had fallen back to conjure Fire Storm. When the fourth flexible arm missed their Valkyrie, the arms retreated as it spewed ink at her.
Nanami had almost cast her spell when that happened. They heard the kraken's garbled yelp and saw Lenneth land somewhere behind it out of view, having left the kraken a nasty cut across the middle of its face. Then the creature slapped all its tentacles done, launching itself upwards and turning itself around in a full circle in the same motion. Black ink spewed out in a full around it, creating a slick oily barrier on the floor around it.
"Ah!" Lenneth reeled as she was splashed with more of it.
The Valkyrie looked down at her armor and white skirts, now more black than their proper colors.
"Oh, Thamur is going to have my head when I bring this down to the laundry room," was her agitated thought.
She turned a furious eye to the kraken.
"That does it. Fell beast of poisoned depths, you will rue the tongue-lashing I will be receiving for this!" she angrily shouted.
Arngrim and the others looked at her across the way in astonishment.
"What's got her so mad?" he leaned toward Belenus to ask.
Belenus contained a laugh while beholding the ink-covered goddess.
"I have an… inkling," he replied.
The kraken coiled its eight arms around itself. Everyone tensed, already knowing that a barrage of flailing tentacles was about to be unleashed on them. Nanami stood her ground firmly, giving the kraken a defiant glare. Then, in the same moment as the sea-beast's arms all lashed at the same time, the magic circle ignited at the feet of the shrine girl.
"Fire Storm!" Nanami forcefully yelled.
As the first of the tentacles swung down towards them, she unleashed the spell's fiery explosion in its path, burning the ends of at least three tentacles down to the bone, killing the kraken's momentum, and forcing it to recoil again. The beast wailed, holding up three charred, almost useless tentacles.
"That is our opening! Now!" Lenneth hollered.
Then, moving as one, all the warriors of the team belted out ferocious roars and charged in to begin stabbing the beast. The ruckus brought the kraken out of its misery, and it instinctively lashed out at them.
"Fire Lance!" Jelanda unleashed the many fireballs of that spell, aiming for the arms.
The charging warriors prepared to parry and dodge in the brief moment they thought those massive tentacles would come down on them. Then, Jelanda's spell intercepted the arms on their behalf, each fireball hitting a different tentacle, striking them back again. With no obstacle to stop them, the party's melee fighters closed the final distance.
Arngrim and Lawfer jumped up on the kraken's body and used their momentum to drive themselves up its face before throwing themselves forward one final big step, plunging their weapons deep into its eyes, blinding the sea-beast. The kraken again flailed its tentacles around blindly, and while it succeeded in knocking Arngrim and Lawfer off, it was otherwise to little effect.
Belenus jumped to one side as an arm slammed into the floor to him, and then the other when that same tentacle raised and came back down. Then he raised his sword aloft and threw all his weight into cutting the limb near the base. Lenneth ran a circle around the beast, slashing any thrashing tendril which whipped towards her, leaving deep lacerations on the undersides of its arms. One happened to swing low, making her jump to avoid it while another came down towards the goddess from above. With no time to dodge, so she blocked, and upon the meeting of steel and flesh, her Divine power broke surface and she shined like dragon's fire in the dark chamber.
The kraken's tentacle forced Lenneth down to the floor, and she landed on her feet even as at least ten tons of blubbery weight pressed down on her. As her power welled up and her shine became blinding, the more she was able to push back against the heavy, stinking squid flesh. A primal scream from the Valkyrie was followed by her tearing through the full mass of the kraken's limb and flying past its head, carving an even deeper gash in its side.
"DIVINE ASSAULT…" As Lenneth flew around the beast, carving it up more and more with each pass. Her voice echoed from wall to wall and down the tunnel they had entered through.
Then she pulled up, stopping only to hover above her enemy for a moment as she conjured the first great spear. "NIBELUNG VALESTI!"
She threw the sacred spear, which fully pierced the kraken through the back of the head and stuck into the floor. Then two more appeared from the sides, piercing it through diagonally, too. Its bodily fluids and ink poured from its wounds, splashing every einherjar within range.
"Ugh!" Belenus looked down at his soiled clothes unhappily.
Arngrim and Lawfer barely seemed to notice, as they backed away from the kraken with their weapons still ready. Belenus also looked up at the kraken, but it lied still and oozing its inwards. Just like that, the kraken was dead, propped up only by Lenneth's spears, which dissolved after a moment. With them gone, it slumped over on its side motionlessly. Lenneth floated down and landed gently among them as they all observed the creature a moment longer before relaxing.
"The day is won," Lenneth's subdued tone denoted little enthusiasm.
She quickly turned away from the dead animal, leading the warriors away as Llewelyn, Jelanda, and Nanami ran towards them.
"Gracefully done, as always, Lady Valkyrie," Jelanda cheered, clutching her scepter in both hands over her head.
"Woo," Nanami breathed out. "Is it over? Can we finally leave this horrible place?"
"Yes. It is over," Lenneth answered. She looked around at the einherjar as they gathered around her. "'Tis been a long day, my einherjar. Let us return to Valhalla."
Jelanda smirked at Arngrim, who was a sopping, inky mess.
"You have truly outdone yourself this time," she cracked. "You know, Arngrim, you should appreciate cleanliness more. Alas, when I thought you couldn't possibly get yourself any filthier on these missions, you…"
She stopped as Arngrim slapped a big, ink-covered hand onto the shoulder of her nice robes.
A short distance off, Lenneth willfully ignored the Artolian princess's shouting as She prepared for them to leave.
"Let me think. I believe I do remember the way back up," she mumbled thoughtfully.
The sound of a dove cooing from above disrupted the Valkyrie's musings.
"Huh?" Lenneth looked up and saw Truly descending towards them, clutching the Unicorn Medallion in her little talons.
The Valkyrie held out her hand, allowing the dove Familiar to drop it into her palm. Lenneth's eyes widened as she realized she had nearly forgotten in all the excitement.
"That is… right," she said. Then she coughed sheepishly. "We return to Henry, first, and then ensure Truly is able to return to their mutual employer to give a full report. This will be but one short stop along the way."
"Hmm…" Lezard tapped his finger against the hardwood surface of the table he sat it.
He was looking down at a map of the Forest of Spirits, considering his options.
"By now those pesky gods and Light Elves will have some kind of system in place to detect my arrival via teleportation. So, let me see…"
His finger moved from tapping the surface to sliding over the parchment, tracing the edges of the island's various beaches thoughtfully.
"If I teleport onto the island at the shore, will I be within the perimeters of whatever devices they've set up?"
He tapped one beach on the south side which seemed to be fairly isolated.
"Now, I could put a tracking spell on something and send it to this location to see if it is noticed," Lezard thought, but then a follow-up notion came to him. "But if it detected and they find it, they'd also realize I was experimenting to see how far the range of their detection system goes and would begin preparing for me to arrive by another means."
Lezard sighed and sat back in the wooden chair, resigned to his only recourse. As he drooped with his arms limply at his sides, Lilly entered the room, pushing a cart with a covered tray towards.
"Your tea, Master," her chocolaty smooth voice reached his ears.
He opened his eyes and beheld the homunculus with Lenneth's features uncovering the teapot and a cup. She turned the little cup over, right-side up, and dropped in two cubes of sugar before carefully pouring the tea in. He watched as she stirred it in perfect form before picking the little teacup up and handing it to him.
"Exactly as your requested, Master," she said.
Lezard smiled and nodded as he accepted it. She bowed and backed up, faithfully awaiting her next instructions. The wizard examined his tea, and his new creation's inaugural attempt at making something that was to be consumed by a human digestive system. It looked correct. It was just the right shade of welcoming transparent golden-brown, and so, he chanced it and took a sip.
"Mm!" he gave a happy little hum, both delighted and relieved that it even tasted correct. He smiled at her. "Thank you, Lilly. Tastes wonderful."
"I am glad you are pleased, Master," she dully answered.
"Might need to work on her personality," Lezard thought.
His eyes fell back to the map, then.
"I will just have to pay a man to take me there by ship," he muttered.
He didn't like the plan, but it was better than trying to slip in via magic at this point.
"If I prepare a Wayback Stone which will return me here, it will overcome any sell cancelers they have in place to prevent me from teleporting out with my catch," he concluded.
He stood up, swishing his tea around in the cup a bit.
"Time to make some preparations," he said, and took another sip. "Ugh. I suppose that means transmuting more lead into gold."
Lezard turned to his new homunculus maid. "Lilly, would you be a dear and begin fetching water from the well out back. Just push down on the lever I've replaced the crank with and the whole process is automated from there. Pull it back up once the pulleys have carried about a dozen buckets in."
Henry heard the sound of bipedal footfalls. He looked down at the tunnel which led in from ravine. After a few minutes of waiting for them, Lenneth and the rest entered.
"Lady Valkyrie," the ghostly mage ecstatically greeted. "Is it done?"
"Hup!" Lenneth hopped from the base of the tall rock to the top, landing in front of Henry. "Yes, human, the seal is restored. Your mission is complete. Now, you must pass on peacefully while you still can. Here, allow me to assist you."
"'Tis restored!" Henry joyously cried. "Oh, Odin bless thee! Yes, I submit to the release of the hereafter."
"Very well," Lenneth reached out both hands to him and drew Henry in.
The einherjar watched as Henry's body morphed into a glowing orb held in Lenneth's palms. She raised it to her lips, muttering something they could not here, and then it dissipated as Henry moved on from the mortal plane. Lenneth returned and hopped down from the stone mound.
She regarded Truly, sitting on Jelanda's finger, still clutching the Unicorn Medallion in her little talons.
"You may return to your master now, small one. With my blessing, go," the Valkyrie said.
Truly bowed and with Lenneth's assistance, vanished as she shifted into the astral plane, taking the Unicorn Medallion with her. With every task completed, Lenneth met the gazes her team.
"Now, we shall return, my einherjar," she said.
Then they left that place, making the greatest haste.
"So, Hræzlyre failed."
"So, it would seem, Master Wylfred."
"Hrmph… And here that bony old dragon was giving me grief about falling to Lenneth. Well, Lady Hel is definitely not going to be happy about this."
"Certainly not," Garm answered.
She stood next to Wylfred the Lich Knight, in her human form. She appeared as a dusty-haired young woman with very fair skin in a conservative black dress. They both stared up at the renewed seal on the sluice gate, and that was all either of them could do. With it so newly refreshed, neither one could break it themselves. Wylfred sighed and turned away from it, his cape flapping out as he did.
"Come, Garm," he ordered.
"Aw, how come you never refer to me Ailyth anymore, Master?" Garm asked with a doglike whine.
Wylfred's eye twitched as the uncanniness of the bestial noise coming from within the dainty-looking human disguise.
"Eh? That was a phony name to begin with," he answered. "Anyway, we have to return to Niflheim. It seems Lady Hel's plans will need to be altered again," he ordered.
"Yes, Master Wylfred."
She turned on her heels and walked after him as a servant would do at their employer's beckoning.
"Oh, dear Lenneth is becoming quite the problem," Wylfred murmured.
"Yes, we may just need to begin making plans specifically to remove her from our path," Garm agreed.
After a few more steps, they turned transparent, and then vanished altogether, leaving the gate chamber in silent darkness again.
